Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Sunday Evening Poll

I think it is much, much more likely (hate to say always or never) to be Bruce's mutually beneficial evolution explanation.

I had a close opportunity over the weekend to observe how marvelously well adapted the influenza virus (or at least one of it's many variations) is to spread itself through the human population.

The flu can be picked up by breathing, ingestion, or skin contact which is later transferred to mucous membranes such as your eyes or nose. After infecting a human, what does it do? It makes a gazillion copies of itself which it procedes to distribute in various clever ways throughout the human environment, by forcing it's host to expel virus particles in every conceivable manner (sneezing and coughing being two fairly non-disgusting examples). The human is aggravated into expelling flu particles to the point of exhaustion. The flu even preys on the social nature of humans by making us sick enough to draw other humans into close proximity to assist in caring for us. The flu strains that can produce this response quick enough to replicate and distribute themselves before the human immune system finally takes the upper hand, without killing the human host (a dead host doesn't move around other humans and sneeze or cough on them, so most of the time we live) are the most successful ones.

Is the flu doing this instinctively? I don't think any of us would argue that it was. The flu strains that are the most successful at replicating and spreading are the ones most likely to live to infect another human, passing their traits on to the next batch of flu.

I can't rule out the use of instinct in the case of birds stocking ponds, but it is clear to me that instinct is not at all necessary for the event to happen.